Editorial: Best to observe reverent silence about Sandy Hook

Dec. 18, 2012

Updated Aug. 21, 2013 1:17 p.m.

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A child gazes from a school bus as it passes by the St. Rose of Lima Catholic church while mourners gathered for a funeral service for shooting victim Jessica Rekos, 6, on Dec. 18 in Newtown, Conn.. Four days after 20 children and six adults were killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School, most students in Newtown returned to school. Children at Sandy Hook Elementary will attend a school in a neighboring town until authorities decide whether or not to reopen their school. GETTY IMAGES

A child gazes from a school bus as it passes by the St. Rose of Lima Catholic church while mourners gathered for a funeral service for shooting victim Jessica Rekos, 6, on Dec. 18 in Newtown, Conn.. Four days after 20 children and six adults were killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School, most students in Newtown returned to school. Children at Sandy Hook Elementary will attend a school in a neighboring town until authorities decide whether or not to reopen their school. GETTY IMAGES

A nation stands in shock. Even in an age where it's all too easy to become anesthetized to carnage, the mass murder (calling it a "tragedy" reduces its savagery) that took place Friday at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., cuts to the quick. Of the more than two-dozen victims, 20 were young children. Therein lies the deepest sting – among them, the killer's bullets likely robbed these innocents of well over 1,000 years of unrealized life.

During his remarks Sunday night in Newtown, President Barack Obama – to whom these pages often offer criticism – did something profoundly and deeply correct. He read the names of each victim of the attack. At a time when media oversaturation often breeds numbness, this was an edifying reminder that a mass killing is never really a single act. In reality, it's a collection of many discreet heartbreaks. Most names on the list belonged to a stocking that will go unopened this Christmas. Every one belongs to a bedroom door that parents won't be able to bring themselves to open.

While the president has elliptically hinted at future policy initiatives that may stem from this moment of national trauma, he has mostly limited himself to being a vessel of national consolation. He told the audience in Newtown, "Whatever measure of comfort we can provide, we will provide; whatever portion of sadness that we can share with you to ease this heavy load, we will gladly bear it. Newtown – you are not alone." This is as it should be. What use is the bully pulpit if not employed to offer gestures of decency when that quality seems to be in short supply?

Partisans on both sides are already girding themselves for a political battle to come, likely on the issue of gun control. Let them. Should the time come when it's necessary to join that debate, we will do so. For now, however, we'll tarry with the memories of those taken too soon. And to those of any political stripe whose first impulse is to find a way to convert these deaths into political currency, we'll simply say: They deserve better than to be reduced to one of your talking points.

It is not just the politicians, however, who need to be held to account. It is also those of us in the media. There is an inevitable tendency in the wake of such seemingly senseless acts to search for an explanation. When this is done in real time, as news is unfolding, however, it often only compounds the inhumanity. Baseless speculation about a murderer's motivation or state of mind are not a public service. On-camera interviews with those only hours removed from the most traumatic moments of their lives are more predatory than informative, no matter the journalistic intention.

The imperatives of the 24-hour news cycle push us towards constant noise – we report, we analyze, and we try to synthesize it all into some broader sociological or political truth. In moments of national grief, however, there is something to be said for the old-fashioned notion of reverent silence. None of us has anything to say equal to the depth of the pain.

Let us simply say prayers. Let us hug our children a little tighter. And let us shed a righteous tear for the sight of a flag at half-staff.

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